The Greatest – interview with Dan Carlin

We are honored to bring you The Greatest episode. Our humble show was visited by the Grandmaster of podcasting himself – Dan Carlin. We talked about Russian and Eastern European politics, role of new media in modern society, a bit about podcasting and then some Soviet history. It was a lot of fun, and I have to say that Dan’s also a really kind and nice person. (Besides having the wisdom of ages, and reaching almost divine status in podcaster circles.) For an independent, Latvian podcast that started out in Hardcore History forums, it was very awesome to get his approval on what we’re doing. And humbling. I truly hope you’ll appreciate this interview, but even more so – that it’ll make you reflect a bit.

16 Comments on The Greatest – interview with Dan Carlin

Sveiki! Very good discussion! In regards to one of your questions about commenters on news articles about Russia in the US: Here, Democrat Party partisans are convinced that Russia elected Trump and that they control him. In news articles on Russia you see comments that reflect these conspiracy theories. I would not doubt that many of these commenters are paid – or at least partisan people who can be relied upon to repeat the same things all the time. Clearly, Russia is pursuing its interests across the globe, but the belief in its influence on US elections and the Trump administration is mostly paranoia and excuse-making for the loss of Hillary Clinton. This is very strange because many of the same people always praised the Soviet Union during the communist era.

On both left and right sides there is a lot of talk and concern mostly with daily outrages, with little knowledge of history or foreign affairs. Thank you for providing an important historical perspective, which is crucial to understanding the present.

That’s really weird. Which ones are missing? I know that iTunes and Stichert and Podcast Addict have them in order…then again, they also sometimes mess up something. Like, now and then, my eps appear up very late. I’ll look at it, thank you!

12:50 God saves us from democracy. It’s incompatible with freedom for the long term. I know the feeling of living in an ultra corrupt society ( Romania ) . The EU treats us like sub citizens doesn’t help either.

As a Carlin listener with a Latvian wife (Sveiks!), I’ve enjoyed many episodes of your show, and this interview particularly.

I do disagree with Carlin on a few points here.

First, Carlin sees the EU and NATO as expanding into the Russian sphere of influence and therefore the Russian response as warranted. This seems, to me, to rob the former SSR’s of autonomy. The Baltics, and other former satellite states, are free nations, and are allowed to read the situation and look for the alliances that serve them best. They came to NATO and EU and sought membership. He has previously objected to being called isolationist, but he is effectively calling for turning potential allies away, which strikes me as the height of isolationism. If a nation seeks our friendship the last thing the modern western sphere should do is turn away a potential ally.

Second, while focusing on the West’s ‘provocations,’ he does not seem to be considering Russia’s likely trajectory, absent any Western influence. He’s previously spoken, almost lyrically, about the US’s self image, and how that influences national foreign policy and shapes history (whether we are acting in accordance with our self image or not). It doesn’t take a deep reading of Russian history to divine Russia’s self image, which is of a strong, vast, important country. What does a strong Russia mean? Generally, a strong Russia has meant a country that can treat its neighbors as second class colonies that they can walk to. We can always hope for change, but pragmatism demands we (and you) don’t count on it.

Hi, I want to comment on what Carlin said at the end about the US “siphoning off all the eastern european entrepreneurs”. It may be so, but I think he’s wrong on they being able to do the same in their “home environment for their own people”.

First off, it’s less likely for them to be able to succeed and do their thing “big time” in Eastern Europe, than in a place like Silicon Valley, where they have right there at hand other entrepreneurs, potential business partners, investors, qualified good employees, etc. In Eastern Europe (or mostly anywhere else in the world) they wouldn’t have that much access to that crucial sort of thing, so it far less likely for them to do their thing “in their home environment”.

Second, even if they are working in another far away country, they can perfectly benefit their own people. The technology, products and services they create can be used mostly anywhere in the world, especially today. Most stuff I use on a daily basis is not produced in my country, so I’m benefiting from the work done by people in faraway places. Also, Working in another country does not mean you can’t use your earnings to help people in your country of origin. Even more, it does not mean the profits of the company they might work in have to stay in the US, people all over the world can nowadays buy stock in foreign businesses.

Not only that, I’d add that almost all people that go to live in the US dramatically rise their own standards of living. So I don’t see the problem in that particular fact.

Love Dan Carlin, but was totally frustrated to hear him speak on the issue of NATO “expansion”.
While he’s all about seeing it from the other side’s perspective, I’m not sure at all that he really gets the Russian perspective.
As far as the Russian state is concerned, all east-european states are on its property and should recognize their position as vasal client states.
In the long run, the Russians will not settle for less and any treaty with them isn’t worth the paper…
Therefore, the flocking of east-european countries to NATO, before the Russians get back into business is anything but “expansion”.
In my opinion, the only way to avoid WW3, is to grind the Russian Federation down politically and economically, until it ceases to exist as a geo-political entity.